Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-01-13

pretended within himself all the
strength and gentleness, all the majcs-
ty and grace of this Repubic-Abra-
ham Lincoln. Loud and long con-
tinued applause. He was the sum of
Puritan and Cavalier, for in his ardent
nature were fused the virtues of both,
and in the depths of his great soul the
faults of both were lost. Renewed
applause. He was greater than Puri-
tan, greater than Cavalier, i'm that he
was American [renewed applause, ]
and that in his homely form were first
gathered the vast and thrilling forces
of this ideal Government-char it
with such tremendous meaning and so
elevating it above human suffering
that martydom, Though UNANIMOUSLY
aimed came as q fitting crown to a
life cOnsecrated from its cradle to hui
man liberty. Loud and prolonged
cheering. Let us, each cherishing
his traditions and hOnoring his faith
ers, build with reverent hands to the
type of this simple but sublime life, in
which all types are honOred and in
the common glory we shall win as
Americans there will be plenty and to
spare for your forefathers and for mine.
Renewed cheering.1
WHAT THE NEW SOUTH MEANS.
In sperking to the toast with which
you have honOred me / accept the
term, "The New South" as in no
sense disparaging to the old. Dear to
me, sir, is the home of my childhood
and the traditions of my people.
There is a New South, not through
protest against the Old, but because of
new conditions, new adjustments, and,
if you please, new ideas and aspira-
tions. 1t is to this that l address my
self. | ask you, gentlemen, to picture,
if you can, the footsore soldier, who,
buttoning up in his faded gray jacket
the parole which was taken, testimony
to his children of his fidelity and faith,
turned his face southwark from APP
pomattox in April 1865. Think of him
as ragged. half-starved, heavy-hearted,
enfeebled by want and wounds. having
fought to exhaustion, he surrenders his
gun, wrings the hands of his comrades,
and lifting his tear stained and pallid
face for the last time to the graves that
dot the old Virginia hills, pulls his gray
cap over his brow and hegins the slow
and painful journey. What does he
| find-let me ask you, who went to your
homes eager to find all the welcome
you had justly earned, full payment for
your four years sacrific-what does he
find, when he reaches the home he left
four. years before? He finds his house
in ruins, his farm devastated, his slaves
freed, his stock killed, his barns empty,
his trade destroyed, his money worth
less, his social system, feudal in its
magnificence, swept away, his people
without law or legal status, his com
rades slain, and the burdens of others
heavy on his shoulders. Crushed by
defeat, his very traditions gone. With
out money, credit, employment, ma
terial or training-and besides all this,
confronted with the gravest problem
that ever met human intelligence-the
establishing of a status for the vast body
of his liberated slaves.
What does he do-this hero in gray
with heart of gold-does he sit down
in sullenness and despair? Not for a
day. Surely God, who has scourged
him in his prosperity, inspired him in
his adversely! AS ruin was never be-
fore so overwhelming, never was res
toration swifter. The soldier stepped
from the trenches into the furrow;
horses that had charged. Federal guns
marched before the plow, and fields
that ran red with human blood in
April were green with the harvest in
June; women reared in luxury cut up
their dresses and made breeches for
their husbands and with patience and
heroism that fit woman always as a gar
ment gave their hands to work. There
was little bitterness in all this. Cheer
fulness and frankness prevailed. "Bill
Arp" struck the keynote when he
said: "Well, [ killed as many of them
as they did of me. and now I am
going to work" laughter and ap-
plause ]-or the soldier, returning home
after defeat and roasting some corn on
thesroadside, who made the remark to
his comrades: "You may leave the
South if you want to, but am going
to Sanderville, kiss my wife and raise
crop, and if the Yankees fool with me
any more I will whip 'em again" RE
newed laughter. l want to say to Cen
eral Sherman-who is considered an
able man in our parts, though people
think he is kind of careless man about
fire-from the ashes left US in 1864
we have raised q brave and beautiful
city; that somehow or other we have
caught the sunshine in the bricks and
mortar of our homes and have builded
therein not one single ignoble preju-
dice or memory. [Applause.
THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN ACCOM-
PIISHED.
But what is the sum of our work? We
have found out that in the general sum-
ming up the free negro counts more
than he did as slave. We have plant
ed the school house on the hilltop and
made it free to white and black. We
have sowed towns and cities in the
place of theories and put business above
politics. [Applause. We have chal-
lenged your spinners in Massachusetts
and your iron-makers in Pennsylvania.
We have learned that the $400, 600 900
annually received from our cotton crop
will make us rich, when the supplies
that make it are hOme-raised. We have
reduced the commercial rate of interest
from "a to 6per cent. and are floating 4
per cent. bonds. We have learned that
one Northern immigrant is worth fifty
foreigners, and have smoothed the path
to the southwark, whipped out the place
where Mason and Dixon's line used to
be, and hung the latch-string out to you
and yours. Prolonged applause We
have reached the point that marks per-
feet harmony in every household when
the husband confesses that the pies
which his own wife cooks are as good